Beth was babysitting for two of Kedron’s kids when I got home this evening, and we all ate dinner more or less together, so I got a brief glimpse of what it would be like to have four kids, with Beth at one end of the table and me at the other. A brief glimpse was more than enough.
Got the music I ordered in the mail yesterday, Chopin’s Andante Spianato and Polonaise, and the Shostakovich 2nd Piano Concerto. The Chopin doesn’t seem to be included in the Paderewski edition of the complete works, but recently I was listening to a Rubenstein recording of it and wanted to check it out. The Shostakovich I’ve known about for quite a while, it doesn’t actually seem that hard, lots of noodling and lots of octaves. The first movement is better than the others (used in Fantasia 2000 as accompaniment for The Steadfast Tin Soldier). My collection of concerto sheet music is pretty skimpy, so I wanted to start beefing it up, although there are so many to choose from it’s hard to decide what to pick next. The piano tuner is coming on Tuesday, then I should be able to play along with the stereo again. I was trying to accompany Isaac Stern a couple of weekends ago on the 1st Beethoven violin sonata and Istomin and I were enough out of tune that it sounded like the honky-tonk version. Almost enough to make your eyes water, and not in a good way.